In the story of “Hearts of Oak” a young man, _Ruby Darrell_, and a young woman, _Chrystal_ (_Dennison?_), who love each other and wish to wed, privately agree to abnegate themselves in order that the young woman may marry their guardian and benefactor, _Terry Dennison_, out of gratitude to him. This immoral marriage is accomplished and in time the wife becomes a mother. In time, also, the injured guardian discovers,--what, if he had possessed even ordinary discernment, he would have discovered in the beginning,--that his wife’s affections are fixed on _Darrell_. The miserable _Dennison_ then goes away, after privately arranging that if he does not return within five years _Darrell_ shall wed with _Chrystal_. Six years pass; _Dennison_ is reported to have perished at sea in the wreck of a Massachusetts ship, and _Chrystal_ and _Ruby_ erect a churchyard monument to his memory. Then _Chrystal_, believing herself to be a widow, marries her lover. But the desolate husband is not dead; he reappears, blind, destitute and wretched, on the wedding day, and in a colloquy with his child, outside of the church within which the marriage is being solemnized and seated on the base of his memorial among the graves, he ascertains the existent circumstances and presently expires, while his wife and little daughter pitifully minister to him as to a stranger. The misery and pathos of the experience and situation are obvious. It is also obvious that, in the fulfilment of a central purpose to create a situation and depict a character instinct with misery and pathos, the element of probability was disregarded. The chief part is that of the injured, afflicted, suffering guardian, who, as a dramatic character, is a variant of _Enoch Arden_ and _Harebell_.